Ares Strategic Mining Inc. announced Monday that commissioning of its Metallurgical Lumps Plant has officially started at the company's processing facility in Delta, Utah. For the first time, the entire processing plant has been powered up and is operating as an integrated system, initiating a four-week commissioning program. The plant is designed to process ore from the company's Lost Sheep Mine into metallurgical-grade fluorspar lumps, also known as metspar, primarily supplied to U.S. steel industries.
Over the coming weeks, Ares will conduct comprehensive integrated testing across all plant systems to verify performance, optimize operations, and prepare the facility for commercial production. Testing activities include verifying complete process flows from ore feed to finished product, testing PLC control systems and HMI interfaces, monitoring and optimizing operating parameters such as temperatures, pressures, and material flows, validating alarm systems and automated start-up and shutdown sequences, and assessing crushing, drying, and product quality to ensure metspar meets customer specifications. A video of the plant in operation is available at https://youtu.be/8CzwUTRsSOA.
James Walker, President and CEO of Ares Strategic Mining, said: "It's incredibly rewarding to see the entire Lumps Plant operating together for the first time. This is an exciting milestone for everyone involved with Ares and reflects years of planning, engineering and construction. Our focus now is on completing commissioning successfully and beginning production."
As commissioning progresses, fluorspar ore stockpiled at the Lost Sheep Mine will be transported to the Delta processing facility to support testing and initial ramp-up production runs. The company expects ramp-up production to begin on August 15, 2026, referring to increasing the feed to the full plant production potential. According to the company's press release of March 27, 2024, commercial offtake agreements are already in place covering the company's expected initial metspar production for the first five years.
The Lumps Plant has a designed processing capacity of approximately 150,000 tonnes per annum, providing capacity to support increased mine output and expansion across the Lost Sheep Project and the wider Spor Mountain Range. Walker added: "We've intentionally built infrastructure that extends well beyond our initial mining rate. As we continue developing additional fluorspar targets across our property, this processing capacity gives us a platform for future growth while supporting our objective of establishing a secure U.S. supply of this critical mineral."
This development is significant as it advances the company's goal of becoming a major domestic supplier of fluorspar, a mineral classified as critical by the U.S. government due to its essential role in steelmaking, aluminum production, and the manufacturing of fluorochemicals. Currently, the United States relies heavily on imports for its fluorspar needs. By commencing production, Ares Strategic Mining aims to reduce this dependency and strengthen the domestic supply chain for this vital industrial mineral.
